Where Islam spreads, freedom dies

“There are certain districts in our towns, where individuals – some of which hold French nationality – despise French people who qualify as Gallic, under the pretext that they don’t share the same religion, don’t have the same skin colour, or the same origins.”

"These phenomena are impossible to see from Paris, in the media and political spheres where the large majority of those in charge are French people with white skin, born to French parents. In these microcosms, the lack of diversity limits the presence of persons of colour or of foreign origin...But let us look truth in the eye: the situation is reversed in many of the districts of our 'banlieues'."

Jean-François Copé, a senior politician within the mainstream right-wing grouping, the UMP (Sarkozy's party), has broken a taboo by denouncing what he calls "anti-white racism" in France. The words come from a book he has written, which is to be published soon, and extracts from which will appear in Le Figaro on Friday.

While the Front National has been denouncing anti-white racism for years, the adoption of the phrase by a mainstream politician has broken a taboo and provoked a furore.

Marine Le Pen has denounced Jean-François Copé's cynicism for having systematically ignored the phenomenon while in office, then highlighting it only a few months later when he is campaigning for his party's leadership.